"This is the baseball."

"If I've told you once, I've told you 1,000 times… Poise counts!"

If this blog reads a little dumber today (not sure that’s even possible), then I place the blame on the episode of “American Idol” that I was subjected to last night. When the hour was over, I felt like I needed to read a high school biology textbook just to get back to some semblance of mental stimulation.

EXCRUCIATING MINUTIA OF THE DAY…

Jhonny Peralta isn’t thrilled with the prospect of bouncing back and forth between third and short. “It’s not frustrating,” he said, “but I’d like to be at one position, instead of moving all the time.” When I asked him what he thinks of playing third tonight, he responded, “What do you think?” I think Jhonny’s upset.

Still, this is a move you had to see coming at some point this season, and Eric Wedge said to get used to it. “This is something I think we’ll see more of,” he said.

RHP Vinnie Chulk, designated for assignment last week, cleared waivers and has accepted an assignment to Columbus.

Wedge said Hector Rondon will work out of the Akron bullpen again Friday night. He said that even if Rondon had remained in the Akron rotation, he would not have been a candidate for Sunday’s spot start. “Obviously, we see him as a starter [long-term],” Wedge said. “But for him to be an option for us [this year], the best way could be out of the bullpen. We want to take some time and see if he is an option.”

An option that might be a little closer is right-hander Steven Wright, who, you’ll remember, was moved from the Akron rotation to the bullpen earlier this month. Wright was promoted to Columbus today after giving up just one run on seven hits with three walks and nine strikeouts in four relief appearances for Akron. Wright was a second-round Draft pick out of Hawaii in 2006.

The bullpen has been better lately, posting a 1.59 ERA over the last six games.

Right-hander Joey Mahalic has been promoted from Class A Lake County to Kinston after going 0-1 with a 1.91 ERA in six starts.

OF Nick Weglarz got off to a horrid start for Akron this season, but he’s come on strong this month. He is batting .448 with a .541 on-base percentage and a .793 slugging percentage in May, driving in 14 of Akron’s 48 runs in the month.

Trevor Crowe is just 4-for-29 since his demotion to Columbus.

~AC

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12 Comments

In addition to Steven Wright being an option for Sunday’s game, he is scheduled to appear at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul on Saturday. He has mastered the art of the change-up, and the one-liner.

Jhonny should be more worried about his offense and less worried about playing 3rd. And after watching the game tonight, he’s right, he shouldn’t be bouncing around, he should be the starting 3rd baseman.

Aw, AC, you asked him about my crazy idea!
lokais, Jhonny should be at third and DeRosa should be at second — where he’s played a lot. Why are we starting Valbuena and sitting a productive bat in the form of Ryan Garko? Tryouts were in the spring.

Jhonny was awesome at third tonight. I was impressed. I do want to see Jhonny at third a bit more to be sure though and I am sure he will impress me again. Then I would love to see Jhonny at third, A-Cab at short (awesome play there by him too) and DeRosa at second. Great plan.
Sad about Trevor Crowe.
Melissa

I’m adding “versatility” to the list of the seven deadly words for the Indians, along with “grinding”, “separating”, “major upswing”… so if Peralta is at 3B, and DeRosa is at 1B, what happens with Garko & Martinez?

For the love of pete, can we just have a 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, CF, RF, C, some starting pitching, a couple relievers, and JUST a couple bench players and quit this nonsense already? This is why the Indians aren’t good – no one knows who is playing where and when and why and how.

Too bad management didn’t have the courage to go with Peralta at 3b from the beginning. Since they can’t rescind the Derosa trade, I’m with lacf, Derosa at 2b, Peralta 3b. Or Peralta can DH. I have to give Wedge some credit, they might have lost that game had Peralta been SS, 5th inning would have had bases loaded no one out, because there’s no way Peralta makes the play Cabrera did to start the inning. Instead, Carmona had 2 one with 1 out and got out without giving up a run. 2nd inning too on a ball Cabrera charged, I didn’t think Peralta would’ve made the play. And Jhonny had some nice plays on hard hit balls at 3b to back up Laffey … and don’t worry about Jhonny’s offense lokais, it’s May. He will hit around .280 the rest of the way. I just wish they could send him to the minors through April every year. If only Sizemore would start hitting, the offense might find some consistency

Exactly. Send him down so he can play every day in AAA.
Are we really in a position to try out a rookie at second? We’re still 8 games under .500! It seems like an unnecessary risk when we have a proven quantity in DeRosa and a guy who has produced like Garko.

It’s typical of teams who, shall we say, stink, to have players bouncing around from position to position. A versatile BENCH is certainly a plus, but the starting 8 should be reasonably consistent. This latest mess seems to be a result of the Tribe’s wish to play Asdrubal at SS, where he certainly belongs, and Peralta could be great at 3B (less range and a big arm). This is an experiment worth trying. But what does it have to do with putting DeRosa on first? Here’s the problem: We already have Garko and Martinez splitting time at 1B, and Pronk, if all goes well, will see some games there in interleague play. DeRosa is a SECOND BASEMAN; playing him at first only adds to the logjam there, takes Garko’s bat out of the lineup, adds nothing to the offense by using Valbuena (WHY?), and makes the defense at 1B worse. So, the net result is this: while the left side of the infield could be markedly improved, the right side is decimated, in effect trading Garko for Valbuena (WHY?) and having Derosa out of position. Carroll can serve well as the backup at 2B and 3B. And is Valbuena (WHY?) really any improvement over Barfield?
We need versatility from the utility players, and stability for the starters.
But, of course, none of this matters if the club doesn’t finally address the arson squad they call a bullpen.

My friends, we have had everyone played at every possible position to date. The problem is no one is comfortable, because no one is comfortable in the position they played last night, or the night before, which could be outfield, infield, or have we tried position players on the mound? Other teams have, AND with good results. We always play TB tough; why not our division? And there, we aren’t too bad. We are even with KC, one down on MIN, and a couple down on Dismal city. The Sox are our arch-enemy, but we are up one on the good guys, for now. We are six weeks into the season, and wondering why we started. Go Tribe!

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